Episode35
We Have Ways of Making You Talk During Pete's off-time from last session he determined that the nearest tachyon node was not being jammed but instead was actually offline. It's unclear what the Spetznatz did to it but this was troubling news to say the least. Undeterred by this temporary setback, Pete engineered some kind of crazy back-door to the Ultranet and installed it in the Bridge. The back-door allowed us to contact Purrina (who seems quite competent despite some questions about Oz's commitment to providing her training) about the Spetznatz' backers. She had managed to dig up the names of two Kovinus nobles that were bankrolling things. It's unclear if they have motivations beyond greed but knowing who's behind things might give us options down the road. The nobles backing the Spetznatz were: * Baron Eugene Vasily of planet Kosmin * Lord Anatoly Bohomil of Yameh system (4 planets) We picked up this episode's action with some deliberation on how to proceed. We had intel about the location of tsk'tsk'tsk (sp?), the new Black Eye leader, which seemed like the obvious next step until the Amarbiter gently reminded us how unusual it was that the Spetznatz advanced fleet was moving twice normal FTL speed. Suddenly, our plan to launch Home Tree One was in jeopardy if they could simply intercept it before it made it to the gate! The debate became which was the higher priority but we decided that dealing with the local Black Eye problem took priority since getting the Treewee united and ready to flee/defend was vital to their survival. We temporarily tabled the idea of neutralizing the scout ship for later. It should be noted here that Kiwi expressed our need for urgency and suggested we forgo our sleep (again) which turned out to be a very good call, indeed. We followed the Black Eye intel to a cache on a deep-wild tree where we found some equipment salvage but not much else. Talking to the locals didn't yield much as they were already working on joining the tree migration fleet and didn't have any ties to the Black Eyes. We then moved onto the next tree where we hit the jackpot. In another hidden cache we found tsk'tsk'tsk himself! He was unwilling to fight us, ("outclassed in every way!"), so we set about interrogating him. Oz lead the interrogation with help from Joe and Kiwi, (good cop, bad cop, furry cop?), while Pete honorably excused himself from the proceedings. A combination of a critically successful Interrogation Techniques roll and some judicious use of magical healing allowed the subject to be in flayed alive repeatedly until he coughed up a goldmine of information. We learned the following: * List of reaver-whisperers (half dozen) ** these squirrels can speak with Reaver using a form of "Reaver Telepathy" but they needed to be close to the Reaver husk in the Cathedral (to go all 'glowy eyes' and shit). * List of black eye seers (8 or so) ** these squirrels are Black Eye converts in important positions * List of 14 Black eye Tribes with 16 trees ** These tribes are Black Eye loyalists and good candidates to be left behind * List of seers who know gate ritual ** these bastards are likely the ones that shared the TreeGate ritual with the Reavers and potentially doomed us all to death by Reaver Dragon. Cross referencing this list with the list of Reaver-Whisperers would narrow the suspects further. *Names/Locations of three trees that were planning to rendezvous in order to create a Treegate for the Reavers ** We used our Chip'Kick radio to call Kruze and update him on the urgency of the situation. He dispatched 300 Treewee Commandos who portal'ed directly to one of the Trees. The Black Eye's scuttled the tree when they realized defeat was imminent. The tree and everyone unable to flee were burnt to ash. It was worth it, though, since two trees is not enough to cast the ritual. ** note: the sabotage was some form of 'tree metal' fire which could not be easily extinguished. Nasty. * Two weeks until the Reavers arrive! ** Regardless of whether they can Treegate earlier they will be here in two weeks. They must be travelling via more mundane means but we want to be well on our way before they arrive. Knowing when they are planning to get here is super valuable. * Reavers are looking for Treemetal throughout Kovinus space ** We've known for a while that the Reavers were searching for something in Kovinus space but the Rangers and our Info Network (really need a better name for that) were unable to determine specifically for what they were searching. We now know they have been looking for sources of Treemetal! The question remains as to whether they were looking for other sources (apparently there are some scattered remnants throughout the galaxy other than the Smoke Ring and the Dragon planet) or if they were looking for the Smoke Ring but it seems likelier that they were looking for other sources since they've visited the Smoke Ring in the past (or at least Reavers from some dimension did if it wasn't our local Reavers - the stories about a 'tear in space' hint at multi-dimensional travel). When all was said and done, Pete came back in and did the honorable thing, (in Ned-Starkian fashion), & that's pretty much where we called it for the night. 22 pool points 1 combat (avoided) 11 mystic for the logger . Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk